March Madness!

Who doesn't love to eat corned beef and cabbage (well, at least once a year) 

and watch national college basketball teams compete against each other?

March brings the opportunity to do both with St. Patrick's Day and NCAA March Madness.

When the first round of the NCAA Tournament is held in SLC, Rick gets tickets and takes his son, Josh.

Josh is serving a LDS mission in Hong Kong, so guess who Rick invited to go with him for the 2017 tourney.

We drove up north the day before and I got to hang out with Jodie and the girls and Blake 

while Roger and Rick got to see four games in the Vivant Arena.

They saw Gonzaga play S. Dakota State . . . 

. . . Northwestern (first time ever in the NCAA tourney and they had lots of loud-cheering fans)

 vs. Vanderbilt (what a close exciting game!) . . . 

. . . St. Mary's play VCU . . . 

. . . and Arizona play North Dakota.

The excitement, the noise of the bands and the fans and the high level of competitive play 

made it such a fun day for Roger and Rick.

We also got to have lunch with Mindy, Jeff, Charlie and Fiona the next day before we drove home 

at a great new place called, Slap Fish. Yum!

And Mindy took us through the beautiful home in Alpine they are going to buy and remodel.

She has watched lots of HGTV, notably Fixer Upper, and has excellent designing sense 

and she is so excited to tackle a big project.

Because we would be driving home on St. Patrick's Day, 

I bought a corned beef to prepare for our dinner 

the Sunday before we went up north, 

and I put it in the crockpot. 

But as I was leaving church, an old USU friend who has moved into our branch, Steve Whitmer, 

with his wife, Viki, invited Roger and I over to their home for Sunday dinner. 

They had also invited another couple, Mike and Charmaine Anderson,  

and they served barbecued ribs, asparagus quiche, among other tasty dishes. 

We enjoyed delicious food and pleasant conversation on their patio 

overlooking the scenic waterway of the Sunbrook Golf Course.

Sooo, we still had a large, cooked corned beef and decided to invite Mike and Kathy Cranny over on Monday night for an early St. Patty's Day dinner and share it with us. 

They are also old USU friends who still live in Oakley, Idaho, and have a second home down the street 

and were in St. George for a few days.

In March, we also took a quick day trip to Vegas to return a defective new toaster we had bought at Primm 

and to use some great coupons soon to expire at Mon Ami Gabi.

Because it was almost free with the coupons, we ordered their shellfish platter for a delicious lunch.

Okay, back to our trip up north for the NCAA tourney, Sadie had some time off at BYU 

and she and Abby (Katie couldn't go) drove to our home in St. George on Thursday 

and Rog and I returned on Friday. 

Saturday morning we fixed a big breakfast of waffles, bacon and strawberries, 

then they headed out to hike in Snow Canyon, then go to the new Tonaquint Park .

 I made up a big batch of my tuna salad for lunch, then they went swimming at the Sunbrook pool. 

That night we drove them to Mesquite to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Los Lupes. 

We joke that the best Mexican restaurant in St. George is in Mesquite!

It was such fun hanging out with these cute granddaughters!

Sadie said that one of the best parts of their little road trip was getting to drive her dad's car! 

She drives a beater at BYU, unsafe for a long trip on the freeway.

Thus far, March has only brought Madness in a very happy way!